AFTER I had been two or three
days returned to my castle, I
thought
that, in order to bring Friday off
from his horrid way of feeding,
and from the relish of a cannibal's
stomach, I ought to let him
taste other flesh; so I took him out
with me one morning to the
woods. I went, indeed, intending to
kill a kid out of my own
flock; and bring it home and dress
it; but as I was going I saw a
she-goat lying down in the shade,
and two young kids sitting by
her. I catched hold of Friday.
"Hold," said I, "stand still;" and
made signs to him not to stir:
immediately I presented my piece,
shot, and killed one of the kids.
The poor creature, who had at a
distance, indeed, seen me kill the
savage, his enemy, but did not
know, nor could imagine how it was
done, was sensibly surprised,
trembled, and shook, and looked so
amazed that I thought he would
have sunk down. He did not see the
kid I shot at, or perceive I
had killed it, but ripped up his
waistcoat to feel whether he was
not wounded; and, as I found
presently, thought I was resolved to
kill him: for he came and kneeled
down to me, and embracing my
knees, said a great many things I
did not understand; but I could
easily see the meaning was to pray
me not to kill him. I soon found a way to convince him
that I would do him no harm; and
taking him up by the hand, laughed
at him, and pointing to the kid
which I had killed, beckoned to him
to run and fetch it, which he
did: and while he was wondering, and
looking to see how the
creature was killed, I loaded my gun
again. By-and-by I saw a
great fowl, like a hawk, sitting
upon a tree within shot; so, to
let Friday understand a little what
I would do, I called him to me
again, pointed at the fowl, which
was indeed a parrot, though I
thought it had been a hawk; I say,
pointing to the parrot, and to
my gun, and to the ground under the
parrot, to let him see I would
make it fall, I made him understand
that I would shoot and kill
that bird; accordingly, I fired, and
bade him look, and immediately
he saw the parrot fall. He stood
like one frightened again,
notwithstanding all I had said to
him; and I found he was the more
amazed, because he did not see me
put anything into the gun, but
thought that there must be some
wonderful fund of death and
destruction in that thing, able to
kill man, beast, bird, or
anything near or far off; and the
astonishment this created in him
was such as could not wear off for a
long time; and I believe, if I
would have let him, he would have
worshipped me and my gun. As for
the gun itself, he would not so much
as touch it for several days
after; but he would speak to it and
talk to it, as if it had
answered him, when he was by
himself; which, as I afterwards
learned of him, was to desire it not
to kill him. Well, after his
astonishment was a little over at
this, I pointed to him to run and
fetch the bird I had shot, which he
did, but stayed some time; for
the parrot, not being quite dead,
had fluttered away a good
distance from the place where she
fell: however, he found her, took
her up, and brought her to me; and
as I had perceived his ignorance
about the gun before, I took this
advantage to charge the gun
again, and not to let him see me do
it, that I might be ready for
any other mark that might present;
but nothing more offered at that
time: so I brought home the kid, and
the same evening I took the
skin off, and cut it out as well as
I could; and having a pot fit
for that purpose, I boiled or stewed
some of the flesh, and made
some very good broth. After I had
begun to eat some I gave some to
my man, who seemed very glad of it,
and liked it very well; but
that which was strangest to him was
to see me eat salt with it. He
made a sign to me that the salt was
not good to eat; and putting a
little into his own mouth, he seemed
to nauseate it, and would spit
and sputter at it, washing his mouth
with fresh water after it: on
the other hand, I took some meat
into my mouth without salt, and I
pretended to spit and sputter for
want of salt, as much as he had
done at the salt; but it would not
do; he would never care for salt
with meat or in his broth; at least,
not for a great while, and
then but a very little. Having thus fed him with boiled meat
and broth, I was resolved to
feast him the next day by roasting a
piece of the kid: this I did
by hanging it before the fire on a
string, as I had seen many
people do in England, setting two
poles up, one on each side of the
fire, and one across the top, and
tying the string to the cross
stick, letting the meat turn
continually. This Friday admired
very
much; but when he came to taste the
flesh, he took so many ways to
tell me how well he liked it, that I
could not but understand him:
and at last he told me, as well as
he could, he would never eat
man's flesh any more, which I was
very glad to hear. The next day I set him to work
beating some corn out, and sifting
it in the manner I used to do, as I
observed before; and he soon
understood how to do it as well as
I, especially after he had seen
what the meaning of it was, and that
it was to make bread of; for
after that I let him see me make my
bread, and bake it too; and in
a little time Friday was able to do
all the work for me as well as
I could do it myself. I began now to consider, that having
two mouths to feed instead of
one, I must provide more ground for
my harvest, and plant a larger
quantity of corn than I used to do;
so I marked out a larger piece
of land, and began the fence in the
same manner as before, in which
Friday worked not only very
willingly and very hard, but did it
very cheerfully: and I told him what
it was for; that it was for
corn to make more bread, because he
was now with me, and that I
might have enough for him and myself
too. He appeared very
sensible of that part, and let me
know that he thought I had much
more labour upon me on his account
than I had for myself; and that
he would work the harder for me if I
would tell him what to do.. This was the pleasantest year of all
the life I led in this place.
Friday began to talk pretty well,
and understand the names of
almost everything I had occasion to
call for, and of every place I
had to send him to, and talked a
great deal to me; so that, in
short, I began now to have some use
for my tongue again, which,
indeed, I had very little occasion
for before. Besides the
pleasure of talking to him, I had a
singular satisfaction in the
fellow himself: his simple,
unfeigned honesty appeared to me
more
and more every day, and I began
really to love the creature; and on
his side I believe he loved me more
than it was possible for him
ever to love anything before. I had a mind once to try if he had
any inclination for his own
country again; and having taught him
English so well that he could
answer me almost any question, I
asked him whether the nation that
he belonged to never conquered in
battle? At which he smiled, and
said - "Yes, yes, we always fight
the better;" that is, he meant
always get the better in fight; and
so we began the following
discourse:- MASTER. - You always fight the
better; how came you to be taken
prisoner, then, Friday? FRIDAY. - My nation beat much for
all that. MASTER. - How beat? If your nation
beat them, how came you to be
taken? FRIDAY. - They more many than my
nation, in the place where me was;
they take one, two, three, and me:
my nation over-beat them in the
yonder place, where me no was; there
my nation take one, two, great
thousand. MASTER. - But why did not your side
recover you from the hands of
your enemies, then? FRIDAY. - They run, one, two, three,
and me, and make go in the
canoe; my nation have no canoe that
time. MASTER. - Well, Friday, and what
does your nation do with the men
they take? Do they carry them away
and eat them, as these did? FRIDAY. - Yes, my nation eat mans
too; eat all up. MASTER. - Where do they carry them? FRIDAY. - Go to other place, where
they think. MASTER. - Do they come hither? FRIDAY. - Yes, yes, they come
hither; come other else place. MASTER. - Have you been here with
them? FRIDAY. - Yes, I have been here
(points to the NW. side of the
island, which, it seems, was their
side). By this I understood that my man
Friday had formerly been among the
savages who used to come on shore on
the farther part of the
island, on the same man-eating
occasions he was now brought for;
and some time after, when I took the
courage to carry him to that
side, being the same I formerly
mentioned, he presently knew the
place, and told me he was there
once, when they ate up twenty men,
two women, and one child; he could
not tell twenty in English, but
he numbered them by laying so many
stones in a row, and pointing to
me to tell them over. I have told this passage, because it
introduces what follows: that
after this discourse I had with him,
I asked him how far it was
from our island to the shore, and
whether the canoes were not often
lost. He told me there was no
danger, no canoes ever lost: but
that after a little way out to sea,
there was a current and wind,
always one way in the morning, the
other in the afternoon. This I
understood to be no more than the
sets of the tide, as going out or
coming in; but I afterwards
understood it was occasioned by the
great draft and reflux of the mighty
river Orinoco, in the mouth or
gulf of which river, as I found
afterwards, our island lay; and
that this land, which I perceived to
be W. and NW., was the great
island Trinidad, on the north point
of the mouth of the river. I
asked Friday a thousand questions
about the country, the
inhabitants, the sea, the coast, and
what nations were near; he
told me all he knew with the
greatest openness imaginable. I
asked
him the names of the several nations
of his sort of people, but
could get no other name than Caribs;
from whence I easily
understood that these were the
Caribbees, which our maps place on
the part of America which reaches
from the mouth of the river
Orinoco to Guiana, and onwards to
St. Martha. He told me that up a
great way beyond the moon, that was
beyond the setting of the moon,
which must be west from their
country, there dwelt white bearded
men, like me, and pointed to my
great whiskers, which I mentioned
before; and that they had killed
much mans, that was his word: by
all which I understood he meant the
Spaniards, whose cruelties in
America had been spread over the
whole country, and were remembered
by all the nations from father to
son. I inquired if he could tell me how I
might go from this island, and
get among those white men. He told
me, "Yes, yes, you may go in
two canoe." I could not understand
what he meant, or make him
describe to me what he meant by two
canoe, till at last, with great
difficulty, I found he meant it must
be in a large boat, as big as
two canoes. This part of Friday's
discourse I began to relish very
well; and from this time I
entertained some hopes that, one
time or
other, I might find an opportunity
to make my escape from this
place, and that this poor savage
might be a means to help me. During the long time that Friday had
now been with me, and that he
began to speak to me, and understand
me, I was not wanting to lay a
foundation of religious knowledge in
his mind; particularly I asked
him one time, who made him. The
creature did not understand me at
all, but thought I had asked who was
his father - but I took it up
by another handle, and asked him who
made the sea, the ground we
walked on, and the hills and woods.
He told me, "It was one
Benamuckee, that lived beyond all;"
he could describe nothing of
this great person, but that he was
very old, "much older," he said,
"than the sea or land, than the moon
or the stars." I asked him
then, if this old person had made
all things, why did not all
things worship him? He looked very
grave, and, with a perfect look
of innocence, said, "All things say
O to him." I asked him if the
people who die in his country went
away anywhere? He said, "Yes;
they all went to Benamuckee." Then I
asked him whether those they
eat up went thither too. He said,
"Yes." From these things, I began to
instruct him in the knowledge of the
true God; I told him that the great
Maker of all things lived up
there, pointing up towards heaven;
that He governed the world by
the same power and providence by
which He made it; that He was
omnipotent, and could do everything
for us, give everything to us,
take everything from us; and thus,
by degrees, I opened his eyes.
He listened with great attention,
and received with pleasure the
notion of Jesus Christ being sent to
redeem us; and of the manner
of making our prayers to God, and
His being able to hear us, even
in heaven. He told me one day, that
if our God could hear us, up
beyond the sun, he must needs be a
greater God than their
Benamuckee, who lived but a little
way off, and yet could not hear
till they went up to the great
mountains where he dwelt to speak to
them. I asked him if ever he went
thither to speak to him. He
said, "No; they never went that were
young men; none went thither
but the old men," whom he called
their Oowokakee; that is, as I
made him explain to me, their
religious, or clergy; and that they
went to say O (so he called saying
prayers), and then came back and
told them what Benamuckee said. By
this I observed, that there is
priestcraft even among the most
blinded, ignorant pagans in the
world; and the policy of making a
secret of religion, in order to
preserve the veneration of the
people to the clergy, not only to be
found in the Roman, but, perhaps,
among all religions in the world,
even among the most brutish and
barbarous savages. I endeavoured to clear up this fraud
to my man Friday; and told him
that the pretence of their old men
going up to the mountains to say
O to their god Benamuckee was a
cheat; and their bringing word from
thence what he said was much more
so; that if they met with any
answer, or spake with any one there,
it must be with an evil
spirit; and then I entered into a
long discourse with him about the
devil, the origin of him, his
rebellion against God, his enmity to
man, the reason of it, his setting
himself up in the dark parts of
the world to be worshipped instead
of God, and as God, and the many
stratagems he made use of to delude
mankind to their ruin; how he
had a secret access to our passions
and to our affections, and to
adapt his snares to our
inclinations, so as to cause us even
to be
our own tempters, and run upon our
destruction by our own choice. I found it was not so easy to
imprint right notions in his mind
about the devil as it was about the
being of a God. Nature
assisted all my arguments to
evidence to him even the necessity
of
a great First Cause, an overruling,
governing Power, a secret
directing Providence, and of the
equity and justice of paying
homage to Him that made us, and the
like; but there appeared
nothing of this kind in the notion
of an evil spirit, of his
origin, his being, his nature, and
above all, of his inclination to
do evil, and to draw us in to do so
too; and the poor creature
puzzled me once in such a manner, by
a question merely natural and
innocent, that I scarce knew what to
say to him. I had been
talking a great deal to him of the
power of God, His omnipotence,
His aversion to sin, His being a
consuming fire to the workers of
iniquity; how, as He had made us
all, He could destroy us and all
the world in a moment; and he
listened with great seriousness to
me
all the while. After this I had been
telling him how the devil was
God's enemy in the hearts of men,
and used all his malice and skill
to defeat the good designs of
Providence, and to ruin the kingdom
of Christ in the world, and the
like. "Well," says Friday, "but
you say God is so strong, so great;
is He not much strong, much
might as the devil?" "Yes, yes,"
says I, "Friday; God is stronger
than the devil - God is above the
devil, and therefore we pray to
God to tread him down under our
feet, and enable us to resist his
temptations and quench his fiery
darts." "But," says he again, "if
God much stronger, much might as the
wicked devil, why God no kill
the devil, so make him no more do
wicked?" I was strangely
surprised at this question; and,
after all, though I was now an old
man, yet I was but a young doctor,
and ill qualified for a casuist
or a solver of difficulties; and at
first I could not tell what to
say; so I pretended not to hear him,
and asked him what he said;
but he was too earnest for an answer
to forget his question, so
that he repeated it in the very same
broken words as above. By
this time I had recovered myself a
little, and I said, "God will at
last punish him severely; he is
reserved for the judgment, and is
to be cast into the bottomless pit,
to dwell with everlasting
fire." This did not satisfy Friday;
but he returns upon me,
repeating my words, "'RESERVE AT
LAST!' me no understand - but why
not kill the devil now; not kill
great ago?" "You may as well ask
me," said I, "why God does not kill
you or me, when we do wicked
things here that offend Him - we are
preserved to repent and be
pardoned." He mused some time on
this. "Well, well," says he,
mighty affectionately, "that well -
so you, I, devil, all wicked,
all preserve, repent, God pardon
all." Here I was run down again
by him to the last degree; and it
was a testimony to me, how the
mere notions of nature, though they
will guide reasonable creatures
to the knowledge of a God, and of a
worship or homage due to the
supreme being of God, as the
consequence of our nature, yet
nothing
but divine revelation can form the
knowledge of Jesus Christ, and
of redemption purchased for us; of a
Mediator of the new covenant,
and of an Intercessor at the
footstool of God's throne; I say,
nothing but a revelation from Heaven
can form these in the soul;
and that, therefore, the gospel of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, I mean the Word of God, and
the Spirit of God, promised for
the guide and sanctifier of His
people, are the absolutely
necessary instructors of the souls
of men in the saving knowledge
of God and the means of salvation. I therefore diverted the present
discourse between me and my man,
rising up hastily, as upon some
sudden occasion of going out; then
sending him for something a good way
off, I seriously prayed to God
that He would enable me to instruct
savingly this poor savage;
assisting, by His Spirit, the heart
of the poor ignorant creature
to receive the light of the
knowledge of God in Christ,
reconciling
him to Himself, and would guide me
so to speak to him from the Word
of God that his conscience might be
convinced, his eyes opened, and
his soul saved. When he came again
to me, I entered into a long
discourse with him upon the subject
of the redemption of man by the
Saviour of the world, and of the
doctrine of the gospel preached
from Heaven, viz. of repentance
towards God, and faith in our
blessed Lord Jesus. I then explained
to him as well as I could why
our blessed Redeemer took not on Him
the nature of angels but the
seed of Abraham; and how, for that
reason, the fallen angels had no
share in the redemption; that He
came only to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel, and the like. I had, God knows, more sincerity
than knowledge in all the methods
I took for this poor creature's
instruction, and must acknowledge,
what I believe all that act upon the
same principle will find, that
in laying things open to him, I
really informed and instructed
myself in many things that either I
did not know or had not fully
considered before, but which
occurred naturally to my mind upon
searching into them, for the
information of this poor savage; and
I
had more affection in my inquiry
after things upon this occasion
than ever I felt before: so that,
whether this poor wild wretch was
better for me or no, I had great
reason to be thankful that ever he
came to me; my grief sat lighter,
upon me; my habitation grew
comfortable to me beyond measure:
and when I reflected that in this
solitary life which I have been
confined to, I had not only been
moved to look up to heaven myself,
and to seek the Hand that had
brought me here, but was now to be
made an instrument, under
Providence, to save the life, and,
for aught I knew, the soul of a
poor savage, and bring him to the
true knowledge of religion and of
the Christian doctrine, that he
might know Christ Jesus, in whom is
life eternal; I say, when I
reflected upon all these things, a
secret joy ran through every part of
My soul, and I frequently
rejoiced that ever I was brought to
this place, which I had so
often thought the most dreadful of
all afflictions that could
possibly have befallen me. I continued in this thankful frame
all the remainder of my time;
and the conversation which employed
the hours between Friday and me
was such as made the three years
which we lived there together
perfectly and completely happy, if
any such thing as complete
happiness can be formed in a
sublunary state. This savage was now
a good Christian, a much better than
I; though I have reason to
hope, and bless God for it, that we
were equally penitent, and
comforted, restored penitents. We
had here the Word of God to
read, and no farther off from His
Spirit to instruct than if we had
been in England. I always applied
myself, in reading the
Scripture, to let him know, as well
as I could, the meaning of what
I read; and he again, by his serious
inquiries and questionings,
made me, as I said before, a much
better scholar in the Scripture
knowledge than I should ever have
been by my own mere private
reading. Another thing I cannot
refrain from observing here also,
from experience in this retired part
of my life, viz. how infinite
and inexpressible a blessing it is
that the knowledge of God, and
of the doctrine of salvation by
Christ Jesus, is so plainly laid
down in the Word of God, so easy to
be received and understood,
that, as the bare reading the
Scripture made me capable of
understanding enough of my duty to
carry me directly on to the
great work of sincere repentance for
my sins, and laying hold of a
Saviour for life and salvation, to a
stated reformation in
practice, and obedience to all God's
commands, and this without any
teacher or instructor, I mean human;
so the same plain instruction
sufficiently served to the
enlightening this savage creature,
and
bringing him to be such a Christian
as I have known few equal to
him in my life. As to all the disputes, wrangling,
strife, and contention which
have happened in the world about
religion, whether niceties in
doctrines or schemes of church
government, they were all perfectly
useless to us, and, for aught I can
yet see, they have been so to
the rest of the world. We had the
sure guide to heaven, viz. the
Word of God; and we had, blessed be
God, comfortable views of the
Spirit of God teaching and
instructing by His word, leading us
into
all truth, and making us both
willing and obedient to the
instruction of His word. And I
cannot see the least use that the
greatest knowledge of the disputed
points of religion, which have
made such confusion in the world,
would have been to us, if we
could have obtained it. But I must
go on with the historical part
of things, and take every part in
its order. After Friday and I became more
intimately acquainted, and that he
could understand almost all I said
to him, and speak pretty
fluently, though in broken English,
to me, I acquainted him with my
own history, or at least so much of
it as related to my coming to
this place: how I had lived there,
and how long; I let him into the
mystery, for such it was to him, of
gunpowder and bullet, and
taught him how to shoot. I gave him
a knife, which he was
wonderfully delighted with; and I
made him a belt, with a frog
hanging to it, such as in England we
wear hangers in; and in the
frog, instead of a hanger, I gave
him a hatchet, which was not only
as good a weapon in some cases, but
much more useful upon other
occasions. I described to him the country of
Europe, particularly England,
which I came from; how we lived, how
we worshipped God, how we
behaved to one another, and how we
traded in ships to all parts of
the world. I gave him an account of
the wreck which I had been on
board of, and showed him, as near as
I could, the place where she
lay; but she was all beaten in
pieces before, and gone. I showed
him the ruins of our boat, which we
lost when we escaped, and which
I could not stir with my whole
strength then; but was now fallen
almost all to pieces. Upon seeing
this boat, Friday stood, musing
a great while, and said nothing. I
asked him what it was he
studied upon. At last says he, "Me
see such boat like come to
place at my nation." I did not
understand him a good while; but at
last, when I had examined further
into it, I understood by him that
a boat, such as that had been, came
on shore upon the country where
he lived: that is, as he explained
it, was driven thither by stress
of weather. I presently imagined
that some European ship must have
been cast away upon their coast, and
the boat might get loose and
drive ashore; but was so dull that I
never once thought of men
making their escape from a wreck
thither, much less whence they
might come: so I only inquired after
a description of the boat. Friday described the boat to me well
enough; but brought me better
to understand him when he added with
some warmth, "We save the
white mans from drown." Then I
presently asked if there were any
white mans, as he called them, in
the boat. "Yes," he said; "the
boat full of white mans." I asked
him how many. He told upon his
fingers seventeen. I asked him then
what became of them. He told
me, "They live, they dwell at my
nation." This put new thoughts into my head;
for I presently imagined that
these might be the men belonging to
the ship that was cast away in
the sight of my island, as I now
called it; and who, after the ship
was struck on the rock, and they saw
her inevitably lost, had saved
themselves in their boat, and were
landed upon that wild shore
among the savages. Upon this I
inquired of him more critically
what was become of them. He assured
me they lived still there;
that they had been there about four
years; that the savages left
them alone, and gave them victuals
to live on. I asked him how it
came to pass they did not kill them
and eat them. He said, "No,
they make brother with them;" that
is, as I understood him, a
truce; and then he added, "They no
eat mans but when make the war
fight;" that is to say, they never
eat any men but such as come to
fight with them and are taken in
battle. It was after this some considerable
time, that being upon the top
of the hill at the east side of the
island, from whence, as I have
said, I had, in a clear day,
discovered the main or continent of
America, Friday, the weather being
very serene, looks very
earnestly towards the mainland, and,
in a kind of surprise, falls a
jumping and dancing, and calls out
to me, for I was at some
distance from him. I asked him what
was the matter. "Oh, joy!"
says he; "Oh, glad! there see my
country, there my nation!" I
observed an extraordinary sense of
pleasure appeared in his face,
and his eyes sparkled, and his
countenance discovered a strange
eagerness, as if he had a mind to be
in his own country again.
This observation of mine put a great
many thoughts into me, which
made me at first not so easy about
my new man Friday as I was
before; and I made no doubt but
that, if Friday could get back to
his own nation again, he would not
only forget all his religion but
all his obligation to me, and would
be forward enough to give his
countrymen an account of me, and
come back, perhaps with a hundred
or two of them, and make a feast
upon me, at which he might be as
merry as he used to be with those of
his enemies when they were
taken in war. But I wronged the poor
honest creature very much,
for which I was very sorry
afterwards. However, as my jealousy
increased, and held some weeks, I
was a little more circumspect,
and not so familiar and kind to him
as before: in which I was
certainly wrong too; the honest,
grateful creature having no
thought about it but what consisted
with the best principles, both
as a religious Christian and as a
grateful friend, as appeared
afterwards to my full satisfaction. While my jealousy of him lasted, you
may be sure I was every day
pumping him to see if he would
discover any of the new thoughts
which I suspected were in him; but I
found everything he said was
so honest and so innocent, that I
could find nothing to nourish my
suspicion; and in spite of all my
uneasiness, he made me at last
entirely his own again; nor did he
in the least perceive that I was
uneasy, and therefore I could not
suspect him of deceit. One day, walking up the same hill,
but the weather being hazy at
sea, so that we could not see the
continent, I called to him, and
said, "Friday, do not you wish
yourself in your own country, your
own nation?" "Yes," he said, "I be
much O glad to be at my own
nation." "What would you do there?"
said I. "Would you turn wild
again, eat men's flesh again, and be
a savage as you were before?"
He looked full of concern, and
shaking his head, said, "No, no,
Friday tell them to live good; tell
them to pray God; tell them to
eat corn-bread, cattle flesh, milk;
no eat man again." "Why,
then," said I to him, "they will
kill you." He looked grave at
that, and then said, "No, no, they
no kill me, they willing love
learn." He meant by this, they would
be willing to learn. He
added, they learned much of the
bearded mans that came in the boat.
Then I asked him if he would go back
to them. He smiled at that,
and told me that he could not swim
so far. I told him I would make
a canoe for him. He told me he would
go if I would go with him.
"I go!" says I; "why, they will eat
me if I come there." "No, no,"
says he, "me make they no eat you;
me make they much love you." He
meant, he would tell them how I had
killed his enemies, and saved
his life, and so he would make them
love me. Then he told me, as
well as he could, how kind they were
to seventeen white men, or
bearded men, as he called them who
came on shore there in distress. From this time, I confess, I had a
mind to venture over, and see if
I could possibly join with those
bearded men, who I made no doubt
were Spaniards and Portuguese; not
doubting but, if I could, we
might find some method to escape
from thence, being upon the
continent, and a good company
together, better than I could from
an
island forty miles off the shore,
alone and without help. So,
after some days, I took Friday to
work again by way of discourse,
and told him I would give him a boat
to go back to his own nation;
and, accordingly, I carried him to
my frigate, which lay on the
other side of the island, and having
cleared it of water (for I
always kept it sunk in water), I
brought it out, showed it him, and
we both went into it. I found he was
a most dexterous fellow at
managing it, and would make it go
almost as swift again as I could.
So when he was in, I said to him,
"Well, now, Friday, shall we go
to your nation?" He looked very dull
at my saying so; which it
seems was because he thought the
boat was too small to go so far.
I then told him I had a bigger; so
the next day I went to the place
where the first boat lay which I had
made, but which I could not
get into the water. He said that was
big enough; but then, as I
had taken no care of it, and it had
lain two or three and twenty
years there, the sun had so split
and dried it, that it was rotten.
Friday told me such a boat would do
very well, and would carry
"much enough vittle, drink, bread;"
this was his way of talking. |
